On this Super Tuesday in Georgia, one issue where the Republican candidates fully agree with President Obama is nuclear power. The nation’s first reactors since 1978 recently won federal approval. Atlanta-based Southern Company is attempting to build two new reactors at the Vogtle plant in eastern Georgia. We speak with Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, one of nine groups seeking to block the project, who notes...

Tens of thousands of North Koreans filled the capital Pyongyang today to attend a state funeral for their leader, Kim Jong-il, who died of a heart attack on December 17 at the age of 69. Presiding over the ceremony was his son, Kim Jong-un, who is transitioning into power, and all of the top advisers spanning three generations. Our guest is Bruce Cumings, professor of history at the University of Chicago and author of several books on Korea....

North Korean state-run television announced Monday that longtime leader Kim Jong-il died Saturday at the age of 69, after reportedly suffering a heart attack while traveling on a train. Under his leadership, North Korea became a nuclear state and was widely known as one of the most repressive societies in the world. Kim Jong-il’s youngest son, Kim Jung-un, is expected to become North Korea’s new leader, but it is unclear if his...

We look at the human rights legacy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and what may lie ahead as his 29-year-old son, Kim Jong-un, prepares to take power. "There are tens of thousands of North Koreans who are in labor camps, often working for around 12 hours a day, if not more," says T. Kumar, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director for Asia and the Pacific. He notes more than one million people have died from starvation,...

We speak with Indian writer and analyst Praful Bidwai, author of the new book, "The Politics of Climate Change and the Global Crisis: Mortgaging Our Future." While the U.S. has cited China’s emissions as an excuse to slow negotiations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the COP 17 talks, Bidwai says that "we cannot forget historical responsibility. Three-fourths of all the greenhouse gases that have accumulated in...

As radiation readings in Japan reach their highest levels since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdowns, we look at the beginning of the atomic age. Today is the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which killed some 75,000 people and left another 75,000 seriously wounded. It came just three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 80,000 people and injuring some 70,000....

As the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, read a chapter of Amy and David Goodman’s book, "Exception to the Rulers," to learn how how the Pulitzer Prize–winning science reporter, William L. Laurence, was on the payroll of the War Department while also reporting for The New York Times on the U.S. attacks and their aftermath.

The discovery of reporter George Weller’s firsthand account of conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki sheds light on one of the great journalistic betrayals of the last century: the cover-up of the effects of the atomic bombing on Japan.

In part two of our conversation with journalist Christian Parenti, he discusses what the meltdown of three nuclear reactors in Japan means for the expansion of nuclear power in the United States, and how the focus on atomic power diverts funds from the transition to clean technology. [includes rush transcript]